Over 50 years ago, in 1972, Arve Johnsen began as first CEO of the Norwegian state oil company, Statoil, which had been established by an act of Parliament in the Norwegian Storting. As state secretary in Norway's ministry of industry, and one of the main architects behind the company, Johnsen was a natural choice for CEO.
As he opened the door to the office in a rented apartment in downtown Stavanger for the very first time, Johnsen was faced with a completely bare room. As the first and only employee of Statoil, his task would be to assemble a team to build the company.
And as he stood there in the doorway, the enormity of the task loomed before him, crystallising into three visionary ideas:
But his next thoughts were more prosaic — the sheer practicalities of starting an office.
Where can I recruit people for the management team, and not least: Where should I go to find furniture for the first board meeting?
This was over 50 years ago, on 1 December 1972, barely three years after the first commercially viable oil discovery in the North Sea. And it was no coincidence that Arve Johnsen was the first employee. As state secretary in Norway's ministry of industry, he was one of the main architects behind the company established to ensure that the nation's natural resources benefited all of Norwegian society.
Statoil was established, with Arve Johnsen as CEO, and Johnsen was able to recruit the people he needed: people with vision. People who understood what he meant when he said that the difference between the impossible and the possible was just a matter of time. And those who understood that cooperation with others – politicians, local communities, and industry players – would be crucial.
And so it became, through close collaboration, the industry that transformed Norway's fortunes, just as Johnsen had initially thought on that symbolic first day in Stavanger: safety, research, and development.
Today, we are facing the greatest challenge of our time – the climate crisis. Equinor's ambition is to keep supplying energy to society with an increasingly lower carbon footprint and to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Together we will develop new energy and new industries. To achieve this, we still need to be visionary. We must see the opportunities in the energy transition, not the obstacles. Time is short, and must therefore be spent well, working together. Let's continue Arve Johnsen's legacy together.
